fastenal

The Challenge

Fastenal is America’s largest industrial supply store network to provide customers with local service and immediate product availability. They have more than 2,300 stores with locally tailored inventories and modern merchandising. They aggressively invest in their inventory and distribution system in an effort to put more products closer to more of the customers who need them than any other industrial and construction supplies distributor in North America. This effort is supported by 5,000 delivery vehicles, including hundreds of semi trailers and sprinter vans, as well as their trademark white pickups.

Fastenal has begun an aggressive expansion plan in South Florida with the opening of many retail stores throughout the South Florida area. Automated Port Solutions was tasked with completing an initial needs assessment, site surveys, network design, pre-job construction, installation and testing of a network infrastructure at new Fastenal stores to enable them to easily implement their point-of-sales, inventory and distribution systems on-time and within budget.

The Solution

With Communications Distribution Designers on-site Automated Port Solutions assessed Fastenal’s complete cabling needs. Our approach looked at not only their immediate applications, but also took into account future applications, future growth of their stores and possible technology changes which would impact their cabling needs. Considerations like type of equipment, load balancing and redundancy was factored into our cost/benefit analysis. Our comprehensive design capabilities are recognized by many as among the best in the industry.

Automated Port Solutions’ technicians conducted a comprehensive site surveys to accurately assess the layout and conditions impacting the environment. Factors such as structural layout of the facility, building codes and safety and physical security issues are among the conditions that were incorporated into the final design. Critical data gathered in the site survey was incorporated into the final site management plan.

The network was designed by Automated Port Solutions professionals with many years of complex design experience with various types of cable installations. This design included state of the art components integrated in conjunction with the latest design specifications and requirements. Our infrastructure design capabilities range across a broad spectrum of commercial applications including large data centers, multi-building campus environments, commercial airports as well as any traditional office environments.

Pre-Construction activities completed by Automated Port Solutions technicians included installing telecommunications closets, core drilling, installing cable support hardware, conduit trays, rack installation and mounting equipment. This installation required the installation of Rj6 coaxial cable to support television transmission, RJ59 coaxial cable to enable viewing of video management software on LED Television Monitors, RJ59 coaxial cable for the analog camera system and Category 5 cabling for the IP voice and data systems. Automated Port Solutions also has extensive experience installing a wide variety of transmission media including copper, fiber optic, twisted pair, baseband and broadband as well as associated components. We also install a variety of wireless applications including 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and Wi-Fi access points.

Automated Port Solutions tested and certified the installation to meet and/or exceed industry standards. We assured the cabling system met all of the manufacturer specifications to assure warranty coverage.

The Result

The network infrastructure implemented at the new Fastenal stores has enabled them to easily implement their point-of-sales, inventory and distribution systems on-time and within budget. Due to the rigorous testing of the new network infrastructure by Automated Port Solutions Technicians, South Florida Fastenal store openings have gone off without a hitch, mitigating the ever present apprehensions of store grand openings. Each of the new systems are tied in to the National Enterprise-wide network infrastructure, allowing them to leverage the investment in their existing infrastructure. Fastenal has made Automated Port Solutions their South Florida Network Cabling provider and entrusted us with servicing, modifying and maintaining their network and cabling systems.